ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team split a doubleheader on Friday at Hunter Field against Concordia-Chicago, winning 8-2 in the first game and falling 13-9 in the nightcap.
In the first game, Concordia scored a run in the first on a Brandon Mahler double and the Cowboys came right back in the bottom of the first with three runs. The first run scored on an error,
Paul Samaripa had a sacrifice fly and the third run came home on the back end of a steal attempt.
It stayed 3-1 until the fifth inning when CUC's Cam Buckley hit a solo home run to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Catcher Ridings had an RBI single in the seventh inning. HSU put the game away with four runs in the eighth on a
Cannon Negron RBI single, another run on an error and two-run single by
Jacob Hollingsworth.
Caleb Reynolds moved to 3-2 on the year with six and one-third innings of work, He scattered six hits and allowed two runs.
Garrett Keller and
Ethan Cloudt were strong out of the bullpen. Keller went one and two-third innings and got of a jam in the seventh leaving the bases loaded, in a 3-2 game.
Ethan Cloudt struck out a pair in a scoreless ninth.
Ryan Renella took the loss allowing three runs over six innings to fall to 0-1 on the year.
Brock Calvillo,
Justin Blancaflor and
Cannon Negron had two hits each for the Cowboys.
In the second game, CUC jumped out to an 8-2 lead before the Cowboys battled back. HSU scored a pair of runs in the second inning on RBI singles by Calvillo and
Benji Fielder. Concordia added a run in the third, one in the fourth, two in the fifth and one more in the sixth.
Blancaflor hit a mammoth home run over the scoreboard in the sixth and Negron had a two-run double. Blancaflor had a sacrifice fly in the seventh and
Hunter Trojacek added an RBI single to cut the deficit to 8-7.
The Cowboys left the bases loaded in the seventh and left runners on second and third in the eighth and two more in the ninth.
Mike Lozano and Hollingsworth had sacrifice flies for the Cowboys.
Dylan Scott improved to 2-0, going six innings for the win.
Jeron Flores fell to 4-2 to take the loss. He allowed five runs over four innings.
Trojacek led the Cowboys with four hits and Fletcher and Calvillo added three hits each. Buckley led the Cougars with three hits and Jerkatis drove in four runs.
HSU is now 11-9 on the year and Concordia is 4-7. They will close the series with an 11 a.m. game on Saturday.
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